In-season coaching changes not easy for players, replacement

The Coaches Room is a weekly column by one of four former NHL coaches and assistants who will turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.
In this edition, Paul MacLean, former coach of the Ottawa Senators, takes an inside look at the issues faced by players and coaches when a coaching change is made, especially during the season.

Coaches are hired to be fired. You've heard us coaches say that before. We all knew what the deal was when we got into this gig.
Having said that, you can never be fully prepared when you lose your job. It hurts. It's excruciating. It's an indictment that you could not get your players to play to their maximum level for whatever reason. It gnaws away at you. You ask yourself: "What could I have done differently?" It's definitely a blow to your self-esteem.
But there are plenty of behind-the-scenes issues for the coach who is coming in as the replacement, not to mention the players. That's especially the case when a move is made during the season. There's always the hope that instant results and gratification go hand in hand with a change behind the bench, but that's not always the reality of the situation.
Let's take an inside look at some of the ups and downs a team faces when a new coach steps in, especially in lieu of Jeremy Colliton replacing Joel Quenneville for the Chicago Blackhawks and Willie Desjardins replacing John Stevens for the Los Angeles Kings.

Quenneville, 60, was fired on Nov. 6 and replaced by Colliton, who at 33 is the youngest coach in the NHL. Quenneville was 452-249-96 in 11 seasons with the Blackhawks and won the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015.
Colliton was in his second season as coach of Rockford, Chicago's affiliate in the American Hockey League, and he's familiar with many of Chicago's younger players. But the fact he wasn't on the staff of the Blackhawks means he's learning about the majority of the players, just as they are about him.
The same applies to the relationship between Desjardins and the Los Angeles players, who are being educated to his likes, dislikes and tendencies every day.
Desjardins, 61, replaced Stevens, 52, who was fired on Nov. 4. Desjardins, who was 109-110-27 as coach of the Vancouver Canucks from 2014-17, is a newcomer to the Kings organization and needs time to get familiar with his players in the same manner as Colliton in Chicago.
The learning curves for these incoming coaches and their teams are obvious. The Kings are 1-3-0 under Desjardins; the Blackhawks are 1-2-1 under Colliton, his first win coming in a 1-0 victory against the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday.

It's a big shock when moves like these are made, especially when it involves someone like Quenneville, who has won the Stanley Cup multiple times. From the players to the fans, it's a shock. Everyone has to take a deep breath.
I went through three in-season coaching changes while I was a player with the Winnipeg Jets. You look in the mirror and say: "What could I have done better? What can I do better?" There's a feeling that the coach is merely the scapegoat for the shortcomings of you and your teammates, and it's something you want to resolve.
As a player, you hurt because the guy who was dismissed got hurt. You had a relationship with this person. Suddenly they aren't there anymore.
From a glass-half-full point of view, it can be refreshing to hear a new voice and new ideas in the dressing room. In some situations, it's just a joke or a reaction that gets a player going, especially when it comes to self-evaluation. Having someone new to talk to, sometimes it's just a different tone or a different way of explaining and breaking down a play that suddenly has a guy saying to himself: "OK, I get it now."
There's also the fact that maybe players can play more relaxed once the change has been made. The pressure of losing explodes at the point a coach is dismissed. The hope is that the players can play more relaxed and free once the move is made.
At the same time, there are bumps in the road the players and coach each must navigate in these situations.
In Chicago, veterans have had a decade of continuity and familiarity of Quenneville's system and how he did things. Those habits become entrenched. Now it's time for something new. Can it happen overnight? That's tough.
In Los Angeles, it will likely be a slow process for Desjardins to leave his footprint on this team. It will take time, especially when for things like implementing systems. To that point: One of the issues he and Colliton must deal with is the limited practice time as dictated by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. You can't just clog together practices every non-game day for a month in order to provide players with a crash course on what you are trying to teach. With travel and legislated days off, it just doesn't work that way anymore.
It's almost like a mini-training camp in Los Angeles and Chicago right now. That's what happens when you have in-season coaching changes. But it's a slower process with the compressed schedule and compulsory days off.
You need at least three days to go over the specific play in each of the three zones -- offensive, defensive and neutral. Then there's work on the power play and penalty kill. It can be very time-consuming, especially when you don't have those three-day windows.
Only Scotty Bowman (1,244) has more wins than Quenneville (890), who is ticketed for the Hockey Hall of Fame. That hasn't stopped each of them from being fired on multiple occasions. It's part of the business, as distasteful as it might be for the individuals involved.
But it's not easy for the guys replacing them either. Hitting the reboot button might be the logical thing to do at times; however, there are no guarantees.